Gov. Corbett signs death warrant for Hubert Lester Michael Jr.

Confessed killer came within hours of execution in November 2012

Barring any future successful appeal, Hubert Lester Michael Jr. could return to Rockview State Prison in September to again face the possibility of execution.

Gov. Tom Corbett signed a death warrant for Michael, 57, on Thursday. Michael pleaded guilty to the 1993 kidnapping and first-degree murder of 16-year-old Trista Eng in October 1994.

Sentenced to death after refusing to allow his attorney to argue against it, Michael, formerly of Lemoyne, has remained on death row since then.

Michael came within hours of execution by lethal injection in November 2012 before receiving a stay of execution from the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. That same court, finding no extraordinary reasons to grant relief, lifted the stay on June 30

Two earlier death warrants for Michael — signed by Pennsylvania governors in 1996 and 2004 — expired.

The last Pennsylvania execution was that of Gary Heidnik in 1999. Two other killers were executed in 1995.

Michael kidnapped Eng from or near her Franklin Township home on July 12, 1993 as she was going to work. He shot her three times and left her body on state game lands in Warrington Township.

He then fled the state and was picked up in Utah two weeks later on a fugitive warrant for jumping bail on an unrelated Lancaster County rape charge.

While in Lancaster County Prison, Michael told his brother about the murder. Familiar with the state game lands, Boyd Michael then led authorities to Eng's body on Aug. 25, 1993.

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After being charged with Eng's murder, Michael escaped from prison in November 1993 after assuming the identity of another inmate who was scheduled for release. He was captured in New Orleans in March 1994.

Michael caused Eng's family further emotional grief after his capture by repeatedly changing his mind about pleading to or fighting the murder and kidnapping charges.

He ultimately entered an open plea before York County Judge John H. Chronister. Months later, after refusing to let his attorney, Public Defender Bruce Blocher, argue against the death penalty, he was sentenced to death by Chronister in March 1995.

Since then he has alternately filed and withdrawn appeals over his plea and sentence.